In the middle of October 2018 the CQJB partners met in London to launch the new Erasmus+ Key Action 3 Project, “Certification and Qualification for Europe’s Job Brokers”. The Project follows the previous, successful, Erasmus+ Key Action 2 Project, Job Broker, that ended in August 2018. With almost the same group of partners on board, who will be introduced later in this e-zine, the new project added three new ones from Spain, Sweden and Greece to strengthen the partnership.
Working together, the partners in the previous project, had identified how accelerating policy reform in public services is impacting on the way services are organised in publicly-funded programmes to support job-seekers. These changes are 'pushing' organisations and practitioners to look beyond traditional roles of 'job coaching' and employment counselling, and extending the skills required beyond 'job-matching'. This requires more in-depth and direct work with the job-seekers and with employers to create - and sustain - job placements.
Over the next two years the partners will design, test and establish a new internationally-recognized professional qualification for Job Brokers that is to be accredited through ISO 17024. They will also explore how a professional certificate can be accredited for the purposes of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) that is used widely in Higher Education.